How is One Successful at Work?

The secret about work that ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu is able to teach us from 3,000 years ago

General Sun Tzu (544–496 BC) is widely regarded as one of the most genius military minds to have ever lived. But what was it that set him so far apart from his competition? One may be quick to think that he was a masterful tactician or genius thinker, which he was, but not in the way that you might first assume.

“The Art of War”, a classic book written by Tzu, is known for showcasing Tzu’s proficient understanding of the human mind despite being labeled as a “military tactics” book.

Sun Tzu, image courtesy of Wikipedia

In between making objective claims about budget, man power and political influence to obtain victory in war, Tzu makes statements similar to this;

“Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing” -Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”, Chapter 6, 31

We can determine here Tzu is implying that success will most likely be achieved by those who are best able to naturally adapt to their circumstances as opposed to clashing with them (an observation strikingly similar to followers of Stoicism in Greece and Rome hundreds of years later).

As you continue to read the book, however, you begin to understand that observations like this are what made Tzu so successful. It wasn’t purely his ability that set him apart, it was his philosophy.

We can infer that Tzu was able to put himself at a competitive advantage against enemies simply because of the way he philosophically viewed his work. By making observations such as being more likely to win a battle by “flowing” like water, he was able to see things from a different angle than his enemies in order to be successful.

How incredible is that? In many ways, Tzu was another man with a job to do, something he had to wake up for and get done each day to make a living and not get yelled at by his boss- just like a person living in today’s world.

So what does that teach us and how can we apply that to our lives today?

Firstly, remember that your job is not what defines your life, meaning you shouldn’t view your job as what you are; it is simply what you do. Once you have this in mind, you should view your work only as another task to do, no matter how complicated or stressful it may be.

After being able to objectively view your job like this, you will be better able to abstractly think about ways to be better or achieve more in your work. Reflect back on Sun Tzu — he applied philosophical patterns that he observed in the world around him to his job, which ended up being key to his success.

The ability to work like this is invaluable. Applying philosophy will eliminate the vast majority of petty problems present in an average work day, such as the dread of not wanting to be at the job in the morning or feeling resentment towards that one coworker.

Without these problems, you will be enabled to focus all of your energy towards highly achieving at your job. This success is capable of resulting in many things: a pay raise, new opportunities, fame like Sun Tzu, even being able to work every day stress-free no matter the work. How great would that be?

The bottom line is that the application of personal philosophy is what makes one so successful, elevating them compared to their peers. Sun Tzu proved it by succeeding in fighting feudal wars due to his incredible application of philosophy to his military tactics, and there is no reason that you cannot experience similar success with this strategy in your job today.

Article previously published on Medium: 

medium.com/@zack.humrichouse/how-is-one-successful-at-work-95df478457b